Choosing
The best Japanese knife
There is no single best Japanese knife, only the one that matches your movement: the four criteria that matter, the shapes, the steels and the prices.
In short: the best Japanese knife is the one whose shape matches what you cut: a 20 cm gyuto to do everything, an 18 cm santoku for vegetables and fish, a 17.5 cm nakiri for vegetables only. Aim for a steel of 60 to 63 HRC sharpened to 15 degrees per side. At Yaiba the knives run from €49 (paring knife) to €249 (set of five), delivered in 10 to 25 days.
There is no single best Japanese knife. There are four criteria, and depending on what you cut most often they do not carry the same weight. This page takes them in the order that matters, then says honestly where our own knives stand.
The four criteria that matter
The shape. It is the criterion that changes the result most, and the one comparisons treat last. A straight blade is not handled like a curved one, and a knife that does not match your movement stays in the drawer.
The steel and its hardness. Measured in HRC, it tells you how long the edge holds. European cutlery steel sits around 56 HRC, Japanese cutlery steel between 60 and 63. Harder means sharper for longer, and more brittle.
The grinding angle. A Japanese blade is ground to 15 degrees per side, against 20 to 22 in Europe. That is what explains the clean entry into the skin of a tomato, and why a supermarket pull-through sharpener destroys such a blade in three seconds.
The care you will actually accept. Stainless steel is rinsed and wiped. Carbon steel, however excellent, patinates, stains and rusts if left wet. Choosing the second without wanting to is buying a knife you will not use.
Choosing by shape
The three versatile shapes cover the essentials.
The gyuto is the Japanese chef’s knife: a 20 cm blade, curved belly, fine tip. It does eighty percent of the work in a kitchen and it is the only one that also suits meat. If you buy a single blade, this is the one.
The santoku at 18 cm cuts straight, without rocking. Shorter and taller, it is easier to keep even and less tiring over a large quantity.
The nakiri at 17.5 cm is rectangular, with no tip. Its edge meets the board from end to end: it is the shape that gives the most regular juliennes, and it serves vegetables only.
The paring knife at 9 cm replaces nothing, but it is the one you reach for twenty times a day to peel, trim or lift a zest.
Then come the specialist shapes, worth knowing so you do not buy one by mistake. The kiritsuke is a gyuto with a tip cut on a slant, more demanding to handle. The bunka is its short equivalent, halfway to a santoku. The deba is a thick, heavy fish knife, often ground on one side only, made for filleting and parting a backbone. We sell none of them: the guide on gyuto, santoku or nakiri goes through them.
Choosing by steel
Four grades come up on every spec sheet.
VG10 is the benchmark of the Japanese mid range: around 1 percent carbon, 15 percent chromium, vanadium and cobalt, hardened to about 60-61 HRC. Stainless and easy to resharpen, it is the best compromise for a first blade.
AUS-10 is very close to VG10, with slightly less cobalt and a marginally coarser grain. In a kitchen, the difference cannot be felt.
SG2, also sold as R2, is a powder metallurgy steel hardened between 62 and 64 HRC. It holds its edge two to three times longer, costs considerably more, and needs a fine stone to be resharpened.
Carbon steels, shirogami and aogami, take the finest edge of all and rust in an evening if left damp. They are professional steels, not first purchases.
The word damascus does not describe a steel: it is an assembly, a hard core wrapped in layers of softer steel whose pattern is revealed by polishing. Always ask which steel sits at the core, since it is the only one that cuts. The guide on VG10 steel and 67 layers explains what the layers bring and what they do not.
What we sell, and what we do not
Yaiba is a reseller. We forge nothing, we have no workshop, and our blades are forged in China in the Japanese style: forged damascus of 67 layers, hammered finish, 15 degree edge per side. Our maker documents the number of layers but does not name the grade of the core: we do not invent it, and that line stays empty on our product pages.
| Our blade | Length | For whom | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gyuto | 20 cm | a single blade, meat included | 99 € |
| Santoku | 18 cm | straight cutting, vegetables and fish | 89 € |
| Nakiri | 17.5 cm | a lot of vegetables, juliennes | 89 € |
| Paring knife | 9 cm | work in the hand | 49 € |
| Set | five blades | equipping a kitchen at once | 249 € |
What we do not offer: no blade made in Japan, no carbon steel, no SG2, no specialist shape. If you are after a blade from Sakai or a deba to fillet fish every week, this is not the place to buy it, and we would rather write it down.
If you want the short answer
For a first Japanese blade, a 20 cm gyuto in stainless damascus, around 100 €, with a 1000 / 3000 stone to maintain it. That is the combination that changes a kitchen most for the least money.
To equip a whole kitchen, the set, then the same stone. For a kitchen that only works vegetables, the nakiri before anything else.
In every case, budget for the stone from the start. A Japanese knife that is never resharpened becomes an ordinary knife within six months, and that is the one mistake that cancels out the choice of steel.
Frequently asked
Which Japanese knife is best to start with?
A 20 cm gyuto in stainless steel, ground to 15 degrees per side. It is the only shape that does every job in a kitchen properly, and stainless forgives the lapses in care that carbon steel does not.
Does the knife have to be made in Japan?
Not for cooking. A blade from Seki or Sakai brings a finish and a workshop history, from 150 to 200 € for one shape. A Japanese-style blade properly forged elsewhere gives the same geometry and the same hardness for less. What matters is that the seller writes down where it was forged.
How much should I spend?
Below 40 €, the steel and the grind do not follow. Between 50 and 120 €, you get a real Japanese blade, damascus or not. Above 200 €, you pay for the workshop, the rarity of the steel and the hand finish, not for a cut twice as good.
A set or one blade at a time?
One blade at a time if you are new to the movement: the gyuto first, the stone next. A set if you are equipping a whole kitchen at once, since it costs less than the same knives bought separately.
Which Japanese knife for meat?
The gyuto, whose tip goes into a joint and whose length slices a roast in a single pass. Neither the nakiri nor the santoku suits working meat on the bone, and no Japanese knife ground to 15 degrees should ever touch bone.
Japanese whetstone 1000 / 3000 — The Japanese water stone that suits a 15 degree edge.
A 15 degree edge is restored on a stone, not on a steel. Ours is built for that angle.
Japanese whetstone 1000 / 3000Read next
Gyuto, santoku or nakiri
Gyuto, santoku or nakiri: Japanese shapes compared on the movement, what is being cut and room on the board, plus what kiritsuke, bunka and deba are worth.
VG10 steel and 67 layers
What VG10 steel really is, what the 67 damascus layers are for, and how to tell a technical argument from a sales argument when choosing a knife.
What angle for a Japanese knife
Why Japanese knives are sharpened at 15 degrees per side when European knives sit at 20, what that changes, and what destroys the angle.